And onward we go!

I find that I blink my eyes and weeks fly by!  This needs to stop happening!  =)  If only I could slow down time - just a bit!!

 After a couple of weeks of super fun birthday extravaganzas (Ty's 9th and Ari's 2nd) we're sufficiently partied out!  The boys had great independent celebrations and have both calmed down (birthday time always gets everyone whipped up around here!).

We finished our unit on Ancient Greece and were about to move onto Ancient Rome when an opportunity arose for the children to attend the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  The symphony is performing a selection from Mozart so we are waiting on Rome and have been studying Mozart this week.  We're reading about his life and listening to his music.  The kids are loving hearing the music and they always love creating a new lapbook.

We've been able to get outside for walks...yes I said OUTSIDE which has boosted everyone's spirits.  We've done some indoor planting.  The catalyst for this was attending the Boston Flower Show last week during which the children visited a booth where they were given mystery seeds to plant.  When we got home we were able to look up what the seeds were and how to care for them.  We've created a mini-book for the trip to the flower show and we've added the information about our flower in there.  We'll track the progress and see how it grows!

We're still working on times tables, fractions, subtraction with borrowing, addition with carrying and Roman Numerals.

We're deciding what to do for our next research projects along with planning our Spring/Summer gardens.  We continue to work on our Spanish alphabet, group reading, independent reading, grammar, vocabulary and a plethora of other subjects.  It's interesting how it continues to morph into something I never imagined it could/would be.  For those of you who have children, I relate it to this...especially when they are little just when you think you have a groove or a rhythm going 'just right' something developmentally changes and poof! you have to switch gears and start all again.  That's sort of what happens on a daily basis with us.  Everyday is different and unique and wonderful.  It's definitely VERY challenging with Ari being 2 and napping a bit less than he used to.  In the Fall he napped for about 6 hours of the day with naps in the am and pm.  Now he's on one nap mid-day for about 3 hours so we definitely have less time without him than with him.  Which is great as he's in such a fun stage but the kids are having to learn to work with him around.  It presents a definite distraction but we're all learning to work around him while he plays and enjoys himself while we do school.  Some days are not as productive as I'd like but we push through those and have other days that are immensely productive.

That's all for now!  I'll leave you with a VERY lengthy review of the last few weeks in photos!

Enjoy!

we're all so sweaty from jumping!!!

all jumped out!

awwwwwwwwww

sleepover and cake for breakfast!!

yes, yes those ARE "hamburger" cupcakes! 

so handsome!!

Happy Birthday Ty!!!  

just hangin' with Popeye!!

who doesn't love a Chimera?

so much building to do!

He LOVES the salad bar at Roche's!

off we go!!

she's so excited to be out walking that she had ribbons of what we all call "jowl juice" !  so gross!!

lots of post-birthday building

still building!

fabric shopping!

group reading

some screen time, too!

sweet tower!

playing at the library!

Thank you Auntie for this book for Ari for Christmas!!  He LOVES it!!

busy busy!

SO much Lego building!!

Happy Birthday Ari!

wowwwwww!

As you can see I'm VERY excited!  lol!  he blew out the candles on cue!  hahha...it's the little things

YUM!!

he LOVES Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and it's spin off Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

ding ding!

his new trolley!!

wowwwwwwwwwww

the AMAZING sensory play book that Kendall made for him in her sewing class

all of my new birthday friends!

cheesssseee!!  My new Daniel Tiger sweatshirt!

deer tracks in our driveway!!

out for a BEAUTIFUL walk!

i LOVE this hat on him!!!

pure beauty

playing hopscotch at Whole Foods!!

I love that they continue to play with all of the awesome fantasy creatures we have!

new bday dragon

science class with our HS co-op!

Ari's dance class - he loves to dance around and play but not so much on the following instructions yet!

science class!

9 year well visit!! 

You're up  next buddy!!  

Then it was off to the flower show!!

Kendall meeting her favorite author Tracy Kane!  She was BEAMING!!!

Ty's "creation" a cheese burger with fish sticks on it!  Thank you Legal's for obliging my son's culinary curiosity!!  

cheeseeeeeeeeeee!!  

out in Boston!

out for a morning run with my furry girl!

Wait, before we start here people, let me stick my hand in it!!

SO excited!!!

I can't believe he's 2!!

hahahahah 

Helping me make banana bread!

He received a yo-yo for his birthday and he LOVES it!!  

Daddy installing the new tv - our previous one simply died on Sunday morning...such a bummer!

prep for Monday!

Sunday evening lap book work

GO BOSTON!!!!

They were making predictions about how many balloons it would take to hold up some of their toys.  

early morning play

lots of pre-teen angst...she is not happy here! 

Kendall was having a LOT of pre-teen angst on Monday.  I had her write this in her journal as it was what she was really feeling.  The next day we re-read this and talked about how there is something to be grateful for every single day.  Then we laughed about how silly this was =)

we love science class!

it's the little things

group reading about Mozart

off we go!

How I've missed this view!  Like his little preppie parachute cord bracelet?!  He insisted on wearing it...it used to be Ty's...awwwwwwwwwww

so happy to be out

snuggly girl

total Q-T

returning from a walk!

reading to his little brother!  (a total swoon moment)

my loves...

SO very busy cutting up his fruits and veggies that he received from Auntie and Grandma for his birthday!

One of my favorite digital stamp companies is having a coloring contest so I had the kids enter!  They were adorable pretending they were fashion designers!

with a colored pencil set like this - there's no way she can lose!  ;)

group reading time

lapbook work

practicing Roman numerals

So excited to plant!

Spring is SO close!!  

Love those gardening hands!

This is the mystery seed that they planted!  So beautiful!

working away!

they LOVE the laminating machine!

Assembling using some stickers and info we received at the show - we will be putting in photos that we took at the show as well

Kendall's garden show journal

The daily schedule - we did without this for a while and I found the kids had a hard time switching from subject to subject so we've gone back to it.  My kids like to know what's coming next.

I love that he's learning to smile on cue!